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Last week, part one of this article came out detailing the stations and the alignment of the Ontario Line, we recommend reading that piece first before continuing.
The trains that will serve the line are the next biggest change from the Relief Line South plans, and have so far caused significant confusion. Upon announcing the Ontario Line, Metrolinx mentioned the line would use “lighter” trains, referring to examples like the Vancouver SkyTrain and Docklands Light Railway in London. This was controversial for more than one reason. For one, the Relief Line was clearly going to be heavily used, with well loved previous TTC head Andy Byford at one point exclaiming the line could not be LRT and would need to be subway. Lighter technology which would be overwhelmed with passengers did not generate excitement. At the same time, Toronto’s history with non-standard “SkyTrain” technology on the problem plagued Scarborough RT had people skeptical of the idea of “SkyTrain-like” technology.
Most of these fears can be put to rest. The specifications for trains outlined by Metrolinx (who is now in the process of receiving bids for trains from Siemens, Alstom, and Hitachi) call for 3 metre-wide, 20 metre-long railcars with up to five car trains. Such trains can accurately be called “lighter” and more “standard” than the globally wider and longer than average cars used on the existing Toronto Subway, while still being 3 times longer and substantially wider than some of the trains used on the Vancouver SkyTrain’s Millennium Line. The Ontario Line trains would also use standard gauge, which is different from the unconventionally wide “Toronto gauge” used on the Streetcar Network and Lines 1, 2 and 4. The Ontario Line trains should also actually be higher capacity (measured by floorspace) than most trains used on the Metro Systems in cities like London, Paris, and Madrid.
At the same time, the Ontario Line trains are set to use conventional motors (unlike the linear induction motors of the Scarborough RT and SkyTrain) and overhead power lines for electricity, which is more resilient in winter conditions. These trains are actually quite different from those examples which Metrolinx cited in London and Vancouver, possibly because until relatively recently, automation — another feature of the Ontario Line — was usually restricted to such lines with smaller trains. In recent years this, however, is no longer the case; Santiago, São Paulo, Montreal, Barcelona, Sydney, and Istanbul all have similarly high capacity automated train lines, many with very similar if not near identical size and power delivery specifications to the Ontario Line.
Further confusion was generated when recent renderings released by Metrolinx appeared to show light rail vehicles akin to those to be used on Eglinton Line 5 and Finch West Line 6 operating on the Ontario Line, which will, as previously detailed, use long and wide metro style trains with high floors and total grade separation. Such communication glitches clearly haven’t been helpful for detailing trains that will actually be as close to a globally accepted metro standard as currently exists.
Now, shorter and lighter cars and trains are actually pretty important to better functioning of some aspects of the Ontario Line. For one, shorter trains means shorter, more flexible stations. Shorter individual cars means the potential for tighter corners, as well as steeper grades when combined with higher voltage overhead power.
As mentioned, the Ontario Line will be automated, which is a major departure from the Relief Line South plan, and this means that as with almost all automated rail systems — the SkyTrain and DLR ironically again being exceptions — platform screen doors will be built into the stations for safety. Platform screen doors were also meant to be included in the Relief Line, but were similarly meant to have been included in the TYSSE before being cut for cost reasons at the last minute. On the Ontario Line, that's something which won’t be practically possible. Platform Screen Doors are actually quite beneficial for safety, faster operations (trains can enter and exit stations at higher speeds), frequency (passengers know where to board trains, speeding up the process), climate control, as well as to help maintain reliability by keeping things like garbage off the tracks.
As it turns out, this automation (packaged with the platform screen doors) is actually very important for achieving the high frequencies planned for the line, with trains arriving up to every 90 seconds. This is higher than is even planned for Line 1 once Automatic Train Control is finally fully installed later this year, and the frequency raised eyebrows initially. By designing the line for high frequencies with smaller trains, very high capacity can still be achieved, supposedly even higher than Line 1 before ATC installation is complete. While some have questioned whether such high frequencies are actually possible, they are achieved in service in a number of cities globally, including the automated lines I mentioned before. The distinction tends to be around whether lines were designed for such high frequencies from the get-go or not, as retrofitting for such high frequencies can be quite challenging. This is because various elements of a transit line can be tailored for very high frequency, from the terminal station design, to the switches.
All of that said, whether the Ontario Line will need Yonge subway level capacity is currently up in the air; Covid may continue to keep ridership down for a few years, and at the same time, increased service on GO Transit could also have a relief function on the network. Perhaps most importantly, a significant portion of demand as evidenced by crowding as far north on Yonge and Sheppard, is along Yonge itself, and as such the Ontario government's transit plans actually reference a long needed Yonge Line capacity expansion project which could involve longer trains and expanded stations.
Another major change with the Ontario Line (and other subway projects under the current Ontario government) is the inclusion of “TOC” or Transit Oriented Community development projects. While the absence of integrated development from much of the subway historically as well as from current projects like the Crosstown LRT stations, most Ontario Line stations will get TOCs. These are essentially highly integrated, mixed-use, transit oriented developments, which in several cases will sit directly on top of stations. The inclusion of such projects is a response to the ongoing housing crisis while also achieving greater cost recovery from the projects.
Now you may well be asking, where does the project stand today? There is a perception that when the Ontario Line was introduced, that the Relief Line South was shovel ready. While it is arguably true that the City of Toronto intended to start digging, they would have been “flying blind” so to speak without an idea of specific station designs and the like. That said, since the Ontario Line was announced three years ago, progress on it has happened at a breakneck pace (not to mention the Eglinton West and Scarborough Subway Extensions, both of which will soon have tunnel boring machines in the ground) as per government priorities. This means, contracts for the trains and systems as well as for the heavy construction and tunnelling for the more complex and likely slower to build southern portion of the line have actually already been put out for bids, with preferred bidders likely to be determined this year. At the same time, some light demolition work and site clearing has begun, preparing the way for heavier construction in the next year or so, despite claims that the line is “fully” under construction.
As you may be aware, the Ontario Line as with other new lines being constructed by Metrolinx is being delivered as a public private partnership with operations and construction being contracted out to a third party. This however does not mean the line will not be integrated with the existing system. As we will see with Eglinton Line 5 or Finch West Line 6, a P3 project can be seamlessly connected to the existing subway network from a passenger perspective.
For me, perhaps the most exciting aspect I’ve been considering recently is that when a new downtown subway line is complete, just how completely that will transform the city. Places which previously felt distant like the Distillery District and Liberty Village will suddenly be a short ride away from one another, while neighbourhoods like Queen and Spadina and Thorncliffe Park will be incredibly easy to access from the downtown core. While a Queen Street Subway has long been planned, it seems its day may well have finally come.
You can learn more from our Database files for the project's stations, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in our dedicated Ontario Line Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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